Elma Farnsworth, who died Thursday at 97, was the wife and main assistant to Philo Farnsworth, the man generally credited with the invention of television.

The invention came in 1927, when Elma, called Pem by all, was just 20 and Philo 21; among the first images transmitted using Farnsworth’s patented “image dissector” – the first television camera – was a photo of Pem and her brother, Cliff Gardner. For what it’s worth, Farnsworth biographer Donald Godfrey insists that Pem was the first woman ever to be on TV.

The couple married when Pem was 18 and a recent graduate of high school in Provo, Utah. The precocious Philo had described his basic idea of the technology for television to his high school chemistry teacher at 14.

“He said on our wedding night, ‘There’s another woman in my life,'” Pem said in 1999, on the occasion of her husband’s induction to the Utah Technology Hall of Fame. “Before I could faint, he said, ‘Her name is television, and the only way we’ll have as much time together as I’d like is if you work with me and help on this.'”

It was a closer relationship than most lab technicians have with their employer. Working at first in a Hollywood lab, and later in facilities elsewhere in California as well as in Maine, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Utah, Pem was bookkeeper, note-taker, and illustrator of investor’s prospectuses. She wound coils and spot-welded components in tubes. She forced him to eat when, as frequently happened, Philo forgot to do so while working in the laboratory.

In the end, Philo Farnsworth overcame the naysayers, of whom there were many, and outpaced the engineers and scientists who insisted it couldn’t be done. It seems that he wasn’t just being chivalrous when he said, “… My wife and I started this TV.”

Elma Gardner grew up on a farm at Jensen, Utah, in a large Mormon family. She began dating the earnest Philo when she was just a sophomore in high school, and the couple was engaged on her 18th birthday.

Philo was lucky enough to find a backer for his television research, and the Farnsworths moved to Hollywood shortly after marrying, in 1926. The work progressed quickly, and the first television pictures were seen on September 7, 1927, at a workshop in San Francisco. Pem is listed in lab records as receiving a salary of $10 a month; other family members, including her brother Cliff, were on staff, too.

Pem also participated in early broadcast experiments, at station W3XPF, in Philadelphia. In a 1999 oral history interview for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation, she recalled a few early bugs. “There weren’t many receivers. There were odd things that we found out. We had a call from a man who said he was getting our signal from his crown on his tooth. And another one, a lady, got it on her range.”

After initial successes, Philo had trouble attracting investors to his new invention, especially after RCA entered the competition, at first seeking to quash the technology that would compete with its dominance of radio. Later, when RCA became the dominant early manufacturer of TVs, courts forced it to license several Farnsworth patents. But television was never a great financial success for its inventor, who became somewhat embittered and turned to research in nuclear fusion. His role in the development of television was largely forgotten, an almost incredible situation in a culture that often reveres solo inventors. The only appearance he ever made on the medium he invented was on the show “I’ve Got a Secret,” in 1957, when he stumped the panel. His reward: $80 and a carton of cigarettes – not much of a treat for a Mormon.

The Farnsworths remained close, had four children, and in 1970 went through a special marriage ceremony at the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, assuring they would be together in the afterlife. This was fortunate, because Philo died the next year. Pem used the next decades to agitate for him to be properly credited for his role as television’s inventor. He was featured on a postage stamp in 1983, and a statue of Philo stands in the Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol. Perhaps the culmination of her efforts was the awarding of a special Emmy in 2002, acknowledging Philo T. Farnsworth as “the inventor of electric television.”

Elma Gardiner Farnsworth

Born February 25, 1908, in Jensen, Utah; died April 27 at a nursing home in Bountiful, Utah; survived by her sons, Russell and Kent, eight grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren, and a sister.